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Oh gods, me too. Everyone else I know who has read it has ribbed me for it mercilessly, but I was a younger, more naive goose at the time. It's on my to re-read list for the same reason - now I know what's going on and am a bit more savvy as a reader in general, I feel I might actually get a lot more of it.

It's one of my favourites too. I think it may have been the first Culture novel I read. It's at least the first one I got, so it's also the one I've reread the most times (~10 and counting) and I get something new out of it every time.Wasp Factory was the first Banks novel I read, around 1992 or so, but it took me a very long time to find out that he wrote sci-fi too.

I don't remember what I thought was happening the first time I read Use of Weapons, but I'm pretty sure I didn't see that plot point coming either.

This for me too. I asked for money to buy gas, I got that and a hot water bottle :D

But my best gift was returning to the town I was born. Went for a walk to see the sun rise over Poole harbour, and visited all the places I remember from before I moved away as a child. This beats the dreary views of Leicester.

From my family I got a pair of gloves, a hoodie, a scarf, a t-shirt and a book about visual grammar.
My girlfriend won christmas by gifting me a PS3 with a game, then my mother gifted me the money to get myself a second controller and some second hand games.

Also what is with all the people getting PS3s? I didn't realize so many people bought consoles near the end of their generation.

Well, when you game mainly on pc, new consoles aren't a very good investment, but by not having one you'll unavoidably miss a good bunch of games. When the generation is ending the consoles become way cheaper, people start selling their games to buy into the new generation, giving you lots of chances to buy cheap games, and online services are still up, so that's the perfect time to catch up on what you missed.

Well, I went from a GTX 260 to an HD 6950, and that was a pretty considerable step up - no, it's not a vanity card like a titan, but what you've got should be considerably better to what you had - especially since I just googled up a comparison and the 7850 is better again to my 6950, so yeah, you should be sorted!

Well, when you game mainly on pc, new consoles aren't a very good investment, but by not having one you'll unavoidably miss a good bunch of games. When the generation is ending the consoles become way cheaper, people start selling their games to buy into the new generation, giving you lots of chances to buy cheap games, and online services are still up, so that's the perfect time to catch up on what you missed.

Well, I went from a GTX 260 to an HD 6950, and that was a pretty considerable step up - no, it's not a vanity card like a titan, but what you've got should be considerably better to what you had - especially since I just googled up a comparison and the 7850 is better again to my 6950, so yeah, you should be sorted!

A backpack, some money and some computer games. Also, my ex-gfs mother (ex-mother in law? I dunno) speed-knitted me a new scarf in one day when she found out I'd lost my old one. I was seriously impressed.